Closed End Thinking

Hope is the only good god remaining among mankind;
the others have left and gone to Olympus.
Trust, a mighty god has gone, Restraint has gone from men,
and the Graces, my friend, have abandoned the earth.
Men’s judicial oaths are no longer to be trusted, nor does anyone
revere the immortal gods; the race of pious men has perished and
men no longer recognize the rules of conduct or acts of piety.

Theognis of Megara, the 6th century BC elegiac poet, wrote those thoughts to dispel the myth that Pandora’s Box only contained all the evils in the world and all that was left in that jar-box was Hope. Theognis seemed to think that the jar contained blessings rather than evils. He said foolish men, not Pandora, opened the jar and all the blessings were lost forever. Hope did remained, and it promised all of us the good things that escaped from the box.

We tend to accentuate the negative and play down the positive. The ancient world was filled with negative thoughts about the nature of man, but within the cracks of those thoughts buds of positive energy kept blooming. Our myths are a foundation for our beliefs, and our belief in the nature of sexuality is our mark of distinction. Sexuality is a strong energy so it becomes the focal point for beliefs about the self. Sexuality is filled with evil according to some religions, but the evil we perceive within it is rooted in myths not in the psyche of man.

The Greeks liked to use myths to create a sense of good and evil, and the gods were the catalyst for these highly creative stories. Fear was and still is a control mechanism. Our beliefs about sexuality and evil reach into the depths of time and we are convinced that the self is evil. Weeding out thoughts of evil is an internal process; evil sits on the banks of time and muddies the water of goodness. Our association with good is based on merit, which means clearing the murky mud of negativity using external means rather than introspection, and that can be a difficult task.

We are scared to explore the inner territory of time. Fear is the captain of most of our inner exploration, and insanity seems to be the first mate. We put a lid on one aspect of consciousness, and only allow a trickle from the stream of awareness into our closed end thinking process. In that closed reality we believe it’s safe to make nuclear bomb for protection, but we discount our ability to use dreams as a method of manipulating daily life. We accept disasters, viruses, and wars, but we belief it is not right to be consciously aware of other portions of the self that have the potential to solve those issues.

New impulses are suggesting that we lift the lid from our normal consciousness, which is filled with myths and the distorted perceptions about a ribbon of evil that waits to tie us in a bow of despair. We are expanding and bringing other levels of reality into focus, and these realities can be inherently believed and utilized just like our ancient myths and rituals.